St. Helena's Chapel - NE
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member MNSearchers
N 42° 47.203 W 097° 16.077
14T E 641665 N 4738585
Lammer’s Chapel which is located south and west of the present town of St. Helena was first established when a John Lammers who had came from Germany to South Sioux City, NE, decided to homestead in the St. Helena area. This chapel is called Lammers Chapel OR St. Helena's Chapel.
Waymark Code: WMKQK
Location: Nebraska, United States
Date Posted: 08/10/2006
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member showbizkid
Views: 20

He homesteaded a 160-acre farm and later another 160 acres. He built the log structure that was called Lammers Chapel. In 1863 when his 1st wife Susannah and a set of twins died, they were buried near the Chapel. The Chapel served as a church a schoolhouse and a meeting place for the community. Lammers donated the land for the cemetery. It is believed that the original
structure sat across the road near the corner before St. Mary’s Church was built on the site with the cemetery.

Church services were not as convenient for the beginning settlers as today. A traveling priest from Jackson would come once a month for mass and would perform burials weddings and baptismals. It is possible that there are records there for this area at Jackson NE. where the traveling priests came from. These traveling priests carried records in the saddle bags on their horses and deposited these records there as it was one of the first Catholic parishes in northeast Nebraska. Some of the earliest records of our
Cedar County area were located in Dakota County NE.

One lady that lived near the cemetery said that some of the graves were of people traveling through who had lost someone during their journey.
There were so many diseases like chicken pox measles and mumps or epidemics that lots of little children died from. The travelers would bury their family during the night and be gone by morning. That partially explains the many unmarked graves in the cemetery. Young women dying during pregnancy may be another reason and many men were hurt working as they traveled on their journey west.

Today the cemetery and St. Mary’s Church (also called the St. Helena or Lammers Chapel)set on the knob of the hill on the south side of the road that runs from the St. Helena Spur to Menominee and on to Hwy 81.
Church Name: Lammars Chapel

Church In Use (even only just occassionally): yes

Date Church Built: 1862

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MNSearchers visited St. Helena's Chapel - NE 07/22/2006 MNSearchers visited it

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